Ex-worker guilty of assault

Markham intern told judge that sex attack occurred on the job

A former Markham city employee was found guilty on Wednesday of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old summer intern in his office last year in the south suburb's municipal center.

After a two-day bench trial Cook County Criminal Court Judge Joseph Kazmierski found Mark Houser, a former code-enforcement officer for the city, guilty of multiple counts of criminal sexual assault and official misconduct.

With his ruling, Kazmierski disregarded testimony Houser gave on the stand Wednesday claiming that he thought the girl was over 18 and that she initiated the sexual contact in his office on Aug. 2, 2005.

The girl had worked at the Markham Municipal Center from June 2005 until Aug. 2, 2005, as part of a summer jobs program for local students.

Houser, 44, is expected to be sentenced Jan. 16 and faces up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.

"We are glad that justice prevailed for this 14-year-old child and her family. We're just glad for the family and glad for the victim," Van Kampen said after the verdict.

"I just want to get my daughter home," the girl's father said as he led his daughter away.

House testified that he and the girl had kissed in his office the day before the assault. He had been training her to do some computer work and as she was leaving the two kissed at her urging, he said.

"She placed her right arm across my shoulder, and I put my arm around her waist and we kissed, a French kiss," Houser said.

The next day the girl arrived at his office at about 9 a.m. to continue her work, Houser said. He said she asked him for help on the computer. He testified that he walked up to her as she sat at his desk and soon the two began kissing. Then she began to fondle him, he said.

Under questioning by his attorney, Houser said the girl told him she was over 18 years old.

"She told me she was 18, old enough. She told me she dated individuals 21, 22 and 23. The older the better," Houser said.

But under cross-examination by Assistant State's Atty. Karyn Stratton, he admitted that he suspected the girl was younger than she allegedly told him.

"What was it about her, was it that she was 5 feet tall, weighed 110 pounds, wore braces ... did her braces make you think she was 18 years old?" Stratton asked. "Did she look 18 to you? Did you ask a supervisor how old she was?"

"It was her conversation," Houser said, adding that he did not ask a supervisor her age.

In her testimony Tuesday, the girl, now 15, denied initiating the sexual encounter and kissing him the day before. She said she had previously told him she was 14.

She said Houser assaulted her on his desk while he was wearing his work uniform. She testified that she feared for her safety and cried during the ordeal.

Houser testified that he had worked for the city of Markham for six years, first as a garbage collector, then as a code-enforcement officer.

He testified that previously he had worked as an Aurora police officer for nearly three years and for the south suburban Phoenix Police Department.